Wilmington, NC takes white spaces to swamp, ballparks

Wilmington, NC becomes the second spot in the country to have a working white spaces broadband network. Given its terrific signal propagation and lack of interference, white spaces looks set to save the city cash by keeping employees behind their desks... and out of their boats.

JesusII, I doubt that would have been cost effective. Those timers often break, especially when exposed to the elements. We used to have one in the observatory, but it had to be replaced every few months, and this was a commercial, environmental model. In other words, the same general class of switch that would be used in a park.

They just don't last, in my experience. Not to mention that people would probably come up with ways to jam them, so that the lights didn't go out in the middle of the game. Which would result in the exact situation they have now.

I really think this is a good solution. Low cost, centralized, robust against failure. Uh, sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Putting in video cameras and a lighting controller could save the city big money by allowing one park district employee to switch off the lights from a central location

Uh, couldn't they put in one of those timed light switches where pressing a button turns on the lights for some period of time? In this case I bet one-two hours would work well.

I'd hate to be up at bat when the lights went out just before the pitcher released the ball. I like the video camera, but instead of turning off the lights remotely, I'd rather call up the guy responsible for reserving the park and telling him to get his butt over there and turn the lights off himself.

Wireless camera. Cost effective. A few steps down the line... Maybe it can help stop crime if people know certain areas are being watched. Cameras go up around the city. Crime drops. Less police activity in these areas lowers cost. More cameras go up. Soon we're in Modern England Orwellian England.

The iTunes store purging was roundly condemned by Ars at large and called a Big Brother type of incident, which I disagreed with due to Apple being a private company, and freedom still being squarely in place (you can go to another phone carrier/app store). But when the Government starts doing things like watching you, that is where Big Brother comes in. Legislated limitations of privacy and freedom, and no way to get around it.

I realize it's a few leaps from watching ballpark lights to watching people on the streets, but a door is a door. Hopefully the townspeople will stay on top of the politicians to keep the door from opening all the way.

Pie, even though I am concerned about that and i'm pretty sure its been brought up repeatedly, we as a community hear about things that pass the FCC, fine print in EUA, and even something as small as this within days. The amount of backlash that would come from cameras on the street would be unimaginable even before it comes to a vote.

Wireless camera. Cost effective. A few steps down the line... Maybe it can help stop crime if people know certain areas are being watched. Cameras go up around the city. Crime drops. Less police activity in these areas lowers cost. More cameras go up. Soon we're in Modern England Orwellian England.

The iTunes store purging was roundly condemned by Ars at large and called a Big Brother type of incident, which I disagreed with due to Apple being a private company, and freedom still being squarely in place (you can go to another phone carrier/app store). But when the Government starts doing things like watching you, that is where Big Brother comes in. Legislated limitations of privacy and freedom, and no way to get around it.

I realize it's a few leaps from watching ballpark lights to watching people on the streets, but a door is a door. Hopefully the townspeople will stay on top of the politicians to keep the door from opening all the way.

-Pie

Uh, too late. I live in Chicago and we already have cameras all over to deter crime. They have flashing blue lights on them so people know where they are. Naturally the drug dealers & hookers have moved to where they aren't. There's now pressure to put up a new batch but leave off the lights.

Unless there are hundreds of these parks a much simpler solution would be running a standard phoneline into the park tied to a command controller that can tell you if the lights are on, and allow you to easily turn them off. And it's using tech that has been around for nearly 2 decades. Given the fact they have lights to turn off at these parks they must be very close to the grid. Even DSL is probably acheivable, why bother with an over the air signal for that?

The swamp sensors make more sense, but I can imagine if they start rolling these out in neighborhoods around the swamp your going to run into issues much much sooner.

On top of this all, Wilmington is a tiny city, with not nearly the amount of DTV sources you'll encounter in large cities so tests there don't really apply to a city where the band is much more heavily used, and the population density is such that interference could affect thousands, versus Wilmington where you might affect a block or two at most.

What sort of testing are they doing to see if they are causing any interference by the way? Any surveys, remote monitoring, etc...?

Wireless camera. Cost effective. A few steps down the line... Maybe it can help stop crime if people know certain areas are being watched. Cameras go up around the city. Crime drops. Less police activity in these areas lowers cost. More cameras go up. Soon we're in Modern England Orwellian England.

The iTunes store purging was roundly condemned by Ars at large and called a Big Brother type of incident, which I disagreed with due to Apple being a private company, and freedom still being squarely in place (you can go to another phone carrier/app store). But when the Government starts doing things like watching you, that is where Big Brother comes in. Legislated limitations of privacy and freedom, and no way to get around it.

I realize it's a few leaps from watching ballpark lights to watching people on the streets, but a door is a door. Hopefully the townspeople will stay on top of the politicians to keep the door from opening all the way.

-Pie

Uh, too late. I live in Chicago and we already have cameras all over to deter crime. They have flashing blue lights on them so people know where they are. Naturally the drug dealers & hookers have moved to where they aren't. There's now pressure to put up a new batch but leave off the lights.

Originally posted by Dogfish:A bit surreal to see my small town in the top headline on Ars!

I was thinking the same when I read the headline. Never thought of anywhere in SE NC as being progressive. You would think with all the fiber made in the city at Corning that the entire city would have it, but as far as I know time warner has a monopoly on cable atm.

Originally posted by windnwar:Unless there are hundreds of these parks a much simpler solution would be running a standard phoneline into the park tied to a command controller that can tell you if the lights are on, and allow you to easily turn them off. And it's using tech that has been around for nearly 2 decades. Given the fact they have lights to turn off at these parks they must be very close to the grid. Even DSL is probably acheivable, why bother with an over the air signal for that?

The swamp sensors make more sense, but I can imagine if they start rolling these out in neighborhoods around the swamp your going to run into issues much much sooner.

On top of this all, Wilmington is a tiny city, with not nearly the amount of DTV sources you'll encounter in large cities so tests there don't really apply to a city where the band is much more heavily used, and the population density is such that interference could affect thousands, versus Wilmington where you might affect a block or two at most.

What sort of testing are they doing to see if they are causing any interference by the way? Any surveys, remote monitoring, etc...?

Hey, where's Seablade? I expected to see him come trolling around here to.